Melissa Upreti, Senior Regional Manager and Legal Adviser for Asia

Melissa Upreti is Senior Regional Manager and Legal Adviser for Asia in the International Legal Program. She is coordinator and main editor of two of the Center’s signature publications, Women of the World, South Asia, and Women of the World, East and Southeast Asia. She led a fact-finding mission to investigate women imprisoned for abortion in Nepal and is coauthor of Abortion in Nepal: Women Imprisoned. She has designed and conducted human rights trainings in India, Nepal, and the Philippines and is involved in reproductive rights litigation projects in those countries. More recently, she was instrumental in securing the constitutional recognition of reproductive rights in Nepal and has been involved in efforts to promote the use of the Optional Protocol to CEDAW in the region. Prior to joining the Center in 2000, she was a Program Officer at the Asia Foundation in Nepal. She has a LLB from India and received her Master of Laws from the Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Stone Scholar.

BAR IN NEPAL

Introduction

Since 1953 the lawyers started to practice law at the Nepalese courts. In the span of nearly 4 decades, today the Nepalese Bar has emerged as a strong organization. Until the promulgation of the Bar Council Act in 1992, lawyers were under the supervision and control of the Supreme Court. Presently the Bar is administered by the Nepalese Bar Council headed by the Attorney General of Nepal. The Bar Council of Nepal is a policy making body, which is also responsible for conducting the qualifying tests to enter into the Bar. Besides, the Council has to work for the professional development of lawyers as well as to look into disciplinary matters relating to the Nepalese lawyers.

Organization of the Bar

Nepal Bar Association is the central organization of the Nepalese Bar. Supreme Court Bar Association, Appellate Court Bar Associations and District Court Bar Associations are established under the Nepal Bar Association. Nepal Bar Association is also a policy making body of the Nepalese Bar.

Classification of lawyers

Lawyers in Nepal are classified into three categories:

1. Senior Advocate: The Supreme Court awards the title of Senior Advocate to any Advocate of reputation with a minimum of 15 years of experience and having significant contribution in the society in the field of legal practice.
2. Advocate: The Bar Council is empowered to award the title of advocate to any law graduate, or a pleader with 15 years of experience, or a pleader holding a law degree with 7 years of experience, or any retired judge and officer of Nepalese Judicial Service with 5 years of experience and any law teacher with 5 years of experience provided that they qualify in the Bar entry test for the Advocates.
3. Pleader: The Bar Council is empowered to award the title of Pleader to any person holding intermediate degree in law or who has worked as an agent for a minimum of 5 years and who has qualified in the Bar entry test for the Pleaders.

The Senior Advocates and Advocates may plead and practice in any courts in the country. The pleaders may plead and practice in all the courts other than the Supreme Court.

http://supremecourt.gov.np/main.php?d=general&f=bar

ANLUS welcomes Advocate Rabin Subedi

ANLUS welcomes Advocate Rabin Subedi in the United States.

Advocate Rabin Subedi is in the US in Columbia University as a Visiting Scholar. He is also a part of LLM student in a full scholarship offered by Public Interest Law Institute. He will be in Columbia University for four months and three months for internship at an organization assigned by Public Interest Law Institute. After 8 months in the US, Advocate Subedi is scheduled to go to Hungary for two months in the human rights field.

Advocate Subedi, a leading young human rights defender in Nepal, completed his LLM from Tribhuwan University in 2002.

ANLUS welcomes Advocate Yadav Dulal

Advocate Yadav Dulal in pursuing Orientation in USA Law Program at University of California-Davis. The program.

The 2008 Orientation in U.S.A. Law program marks the 19th anniversary of this successful international summer law program. Lawyers, judges, prosecutors and defenders, notaries, law professors, pre-LL.M. students and business professionals attend this program to gain a better understanding of the theories and practices of the U.S. legal system. Participants engage in more than 170 hours of classes, seminars and on-site observations. Many participants begin with the Orientation in U.S.A. Law program and then continue with the specialized programs in Financing International Transactions (offered in 2008), Structuring an International Joint Venture (offered in 2009) and The Global Trading System (offered in 2010). However, the Orientation in U.S.A. Law is not a prerequisite for any of the three specialized programs. All participants attend core classes three hours daily on such topics as: U.S. legal system, torts, intellectual/real property, taxation, dispute resolution, remedies, business structures and contracts, civil procedures, Antitrust regulations, labor relations/environmental law, ethics, legal research, negotiation, arbitration, mediation, e-commerce. Participants choose afternoon or evening elective seminars three hours daily that are related to their areas of specialization. General topics are: business and trade, law school preparation for pre-LL.M. students, U.S. criminal justice system, judicial management, on-site visits and observations. The Orientation in U.S.A. Law program draws law school faculty from the University of California at Davis and includes outstanding legal practitioners and business experts representing major California firms that perform international legal work. All participants will receive a certificate of attendance if they attend class regularly. Academic credit from any of these programs may be applied toward the part-time summer International Commercial Law LL.M. and/or the Licentiate in International Transactions Involving the United States.

ANLUS welcomes Advocate Sudip Dwivedi

Advocate Sudeep Dwivedi has a Master’s degree in Accounting and a bachelor’s degree in Law with 9 years of work experience in service business (Law Firm). Dwivedi is currently pursuing M.B.A. at Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa. He has Master’s In Sociology and Anthropology, Nepal,(2007), Bachelor of Law (LL.B), Nepal (2004), Master’s Degree In Business Studies, Nepal (2003) and a Bachelor’s Degree In Business Studies, Nepal, (2001). As an advocate he was working with Legal Research Associates in Nepal. He has extensive working knowledge in accounting field as well. Dwivedi is a member is Nepal Bar Council (NBA), Appellate Court Bar Association Patan Nepal, and Nepal Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HURON).

ANLUS welcomes Advocate Reshma Thapa (LLM Full Scholarship Recipient – University of Notre Dame)

ANLUS welcomes Advocate Reshma Thapa in the US. She is here on a full scholarship program for LLM studies at University of Notre Dame.

Ms. Thapa has been working as a human rights defender with leading international non profit organizations in Nepal for the past 8 years. Her portfolio includes Human Rights House, International Commission of Jurists, LAWYERS, LANCAU, HUREP to name a few.

Ms. Thapa is considered as one of the leading young lawyers in Nepal in the field of governance and democracy, humanitarian affairs, minority rights, women rights and constituent assembly elections.

She can be reached at reshmathapa@gmail.com .

Senior advocate title for 25 lawyers

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Aug 4 – The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday decided to award 25 lawyers with the title of senior advocate. However, not a single woman made it to the list of new senior advocates this time. A meeting of the Full Court, the highest policy-making body of the judiciary, took the decision to confer the honorary title to prominent  lawyers as per the recommendation of a committee headed by Justice Anup Raj Sharma, said SC spokesperson Til Prasad Shrestha.

Some prominent names to be honored with the title included Attorney General Yagya Murti Banjade, former Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki, former member of parliament Harihar Dahal, Bharat Raj Upreti, Prakash Wosti, Kamal Narayan Das and former Supreme Court Justice Pawan Kumar Ojha.

Other names included Bishnu Prasad Nepali, Amar Bahadur Pande, Narayan Prasad Khatri, Narayan Prasad Yadav, Madan Bahadur Thapa, Arjun Prasad Lamsal, Netra Bahadur Nepal, Kousal Kishor Dwibedi, Gauribar Prasad Agrawal, Yogendra Kumar Sharma, Devendra Singh, Laxman Lal Karna and Narayan Ballav Pant. Likewise, other new senior advocates to be honored are Padma Nath Sharma, Binod Kumar Sharma, Lila Prasad Sapkota and Ram Prasad Sitoula.

The Supreme Court decided to confer the tile on the basis of seniority, contribution to society and the judicial system and high morality, said Justice Sharma.

The committee comprising Sharma, Justices Bal Ram KC and Tahir Ali Ansari recommended the names after over a year long study. The court had conferred the tile to 15 lawyers, including a woman three years ago.

When asked why a single woman lawyer did not qualify for the title this time, Justice Sharma said, “We tried our best but it was very difficult to ignore the seniority system.”

Save San Francisco’s ‘Sanctuary City’ Status.

San Francisco, CA.— Community groups, clergy and youth advocates will gather at City Hall to ask Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors to support public safety for all San Franciscans and due process and privacy rights in the juvenile justice system for all youths. This press conference is in direct response to a series of misleading articles in the San Francisco Chronicle that blame the City’s crime on its Sanctuary status — ignoring the thousands of immigrants that contribute to the city’s economic prosperity and cultural diversity, and also failing to recognize that undocumented youths and families are here often times because they are fleeing economic and political hardships in their home countries.

For more information contact: Carolyn Tran, SFILEN at 415.282.6209 x 15 or Evelyn Sanchez at 415.572.0639

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Evelyn Sanchez, Advocacy Coordinator

Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition (BAIRC)

Office: 510 839 7598 / Cell: 415 572 0639

evelyn@immigrantrights.org / www.immigrantrights.org

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The First Meeting of ANLUS on JULY 04, 2009

The Wait is Over!

The First Meeting of ANLUS on JULY 04, 2009

ASSOCIATION OF NEPALESE LAWYERS AND SCHOLARS IN THE US

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

[DURING THE ANA CONVENTION 2009]

ANLUS Invites all Nepalese Law Students in the US, Nepali Lawyers-Advocates, US Attorneys from Nepal, Law Faculty Members from Nepal and US, Nepalese Paralegals and Nepalese Legal Professionals to attend and be a part of the first meeting of our online legal community, here in San Francisco, California on July 04, 2009 during the 27^th ANA Convention. Exact Venue, Time and Program Schedule to follow. Law Faculty from Nepal Law Campus, Kathmandu School of Law and some major US Law Schools will also be invited.

Introduction :: Professor Madhavi Basnet Karki

Associate Campus Dean Professor Madhavi Basnet Karki worked as a Human Rights Attorney in Nepal before immigrating to the U.S. and frequently appears on community-based radio stations to discuss the human rights situation in Nepal. She is also the founding coordinator and life member of America Nepal Women’s Association in Washington DC. Her legal journey starts from Nepal Law Campus to American University Washington College of Law, where she completed LLM. Currently she is working as an adjunct faculty for Business Law and is also as Associate Dean for Strayer University. More details to come.

ANLUS welcomes you abroad professor. Your also seek your help in getting more names of Nepali law

diaspora .

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Email from Professor Karki:

Great Site!!!!
I also found ANLUS website while searching some information regarding my friend Sapana Malla and amazed to see this great site. My legal journey starts from Nepal Law Campus to American University Washington College of Law, where I completed LLM. Currently I am working as adjunct faculty for Business Law & Associate Dean for Strayer University.
I know many names here and hope we will have some sort of site to chat with each others in this forum
Thank you and keep up with the good work. 

Regards,
Madhavi